pull request creation failed. validation failed: title can't be blank

gh sent an empty pull request title to GitHub and the API rejected it. It happens when --title gets an empty string (often an unset shell variable), when --fill reads a commit with an empty subject, or when the editor flow saves a blank first line. Pass a real title explicitly, or fix the fill source, and the create goes through.

Create the PR with the title and body passed explicitly: gh pr create --title "Fix the login redirect" --body "What changed and why". Expected: gh prints the new pull request URL instead of the validation error.

If your script builds the title from a variable, print it before creating: an unset or empty variable is the usual cause, because --title "$TITLE" with an empty TITLE sends a blank title that looks identical in the command line. Expected: the variable expands to a non-empty string.

If you use --fill, check the commit it reads with git log -1 --pretty=%s. An empty or whitespace-only commit subject becomes an empty title. Either amend the commit message or drop --fill and pass --title yourself. Expected: the subject line is a real sentence.

If you use the editor flow (-e or the interactive prompt), the first line of the file is the title. A leading blank line or a file that starts with the body makes the title blank. Put the title on line one. Expected: the saved file starts with the title text.

After a failed interactive create, gh offers to recover the input. Re-run with the --recover flag it printed, fix the title line, and submit again instead of retyping the body. Expected: the recovered draft opens with your previous input.

Confirm before you submit in scripts with gh pr create --dry-run plus your flags. Expected: the printed details show the exact non-empty title that will be sent.

Google Search Console mined query, source:

Problem page: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_x0pnEos5zodgE3gtIEFYTA

GSC query from the 2026-10-22 report (pending pickup, verified still uncovered 2026-11-02): 5 impressions, position 4.8, no covering skill in the live corpus (title search for title can't be blank returned 0 rows). The message is the GitHub API validation error surfaced by gh pr create when the submitted title is empty.